Circulation, Conditions, Claims: Examining the Politics of Historical Memory in Eastern Europe (original) (raw)

Memory and Change in Europe: Eastern Perspectives

Berghahn Books , 2015

In studies of a common European past, there is a significant lack of scholarship on the former Eastern Bloc countries. While understanding the importance of shifting the focus of European memory eastward, contributors to this volume avoid the trap of Eastern European exceptionalism, an assumption that this region's experiences are too unique to render them comparable to the rest of Europe. They offer a reflection on memory from an Eastern European historical perspective, one that can be measured against, or applied to, historical experience in other parts of Europe. In this way, the authors situate studies on memory in Eastern Europe within the broader debate on European memory. © 2015 Malgorzata Pakier and Joanna Wawrzyniak. All rights reserved.

Memory in Post-communist Europe: Controversies over Identity, Conflicts, and Nostalgia

East European Politics & Societies, 2018

Controversies over social memory form an important aspect of reality in the post-communist countries of eastern europe. On the one hand, there are debates about coming to terms with the communist past and the Second World War that preceded it (because important parts of the memory of the war were "frozen" during the communist era), and, on the other hand, and intimately connected to that, are discussions about the constant influence of communism on the current situation. This article presents some of the main trends in research on collective memory in the post-communist countries of eastern europe and reveals similarities and differences in the process of memo-rialization of communism in the countries of the region. although there are works devoted to a comparative analysis of memory usage and its various interpretations in the political sphere in the countries of eastern europe, there are still many issues concerning daily practices (economic, religious, and cultural) associated with varying interpretations of the war and the communist past which needs further elaboration and analysis.

Memory Studies in Eastern Europe: Key Issues and Future Perspectives

Polish Sociological Review, 2013

The paper addresses selected issues of the recent growth in Eastern European memory studies: It identifies the unconscious Western imperialism within the recently institutionalized interdisciplinary field of memory studies; Then, it offers arguments for historical sociology in memory studies, and proceeds to critically analyze the recent growth of transnational historical inquiries into European memory and the place within these studies of the research on Eastern Europe. Finally, it raises the theoretical issue of a region as one possible framework of memory and a terrain for legitimate sociological inquiry fuelled by historical data. As such, it serves as an introduction to the current PSR volume on theoretical traditions and propositions for Eastern European memory studies.

The Vanishing Truth: Politics and Memory in Post-Communist Europe

In post-communist Eastern Europe, the "politics of memory" has been shaped by ten broad misconceptions. This article identifies, analyzes and illustrates each one of them in an effort to distinguish the way in which concrete experiences, perceptions, and stereotypes have shaped the process of coming to terms with the recent past in Eastern Europe. Research was conducted with the generous support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Collective Memory, Symbols and Regimes in East Central Europe. A Comparative Perspective

ABSTRACT The main aim of my paper is to examine the path-dependency of political transformations in East Central Europe and other Post-Soviet states with a special focus on Poland and the ECE states as defined by Piotr S. Wandycz (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Slovakia). The hypotheses I adopt states that the varying pace of reforms and consolidation of the democracy in the post-communist period can be explained with the help of Maurice’s Halbwachs’ notion of “collective memory” and Eric Voegelin’s theory of “political symbols”. I will also focus on some of the most recent developments in East Central Europe.

Partisan History and the Eastern European Region of Memory

Simon Lewis, Jeffrey K. Olick, Małgorzata Pakier, and Joanna Wawrzyniak, eds., Regions of Memory: Transnational Formations (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), 101-138., 2022

The nascent eld of Memory Studies emerges from contemporary trends that include a shift from concern with historical knowledge of events to that of memory, from 'what we know' to 'how we remember it'; changes in generational memory; the rapid advance of technologies of memory; panics over declining powers of memory, which mirror our fascination with the possibilities of memory enhancement; and the development of trauma narratives in reshaping the past. These factors have contributed to an intensi cation of public discourses on our past over the last thirty years. Technological, political, interpersonal, social and cultural shifts affect what, how and why people and societies remember and forget. This groundbreaking series tackles questions such as: What is 'memory' under these conditions? What are its prospects, and also the prospects for its interdisciplinary and systematic study? What are the conceptual, theoretical and methodological tools for its investigation and illumination?

Delete, Restart, or Rewind? Post-1989 Public Memory Work in East-Central Europe

Sociology Compass, 2011

In this review, I survey the empirical research literature on collective memory work in post-1989 Central-East Europe. Among the central cultural changes that the transformative moment of 1989 represented for the seven former members of the Eastern Bloc was the restructuring of public memory, through new anniversaries, monuments, museums, and apologies. By synthesizing the existing literature, we can discern a number of common threads in public memory across these locations, as well as differences, signaling that each country is charting its own path. Trends point toward preferences for damning the communist history, reviving national traditions, lustrating particular individuals, and hesitating over how to commemorate the 1989 events. There are gaps in the arenas that the literature address, which could be filled by a more representative balance across the seven countries, and toward increased attention to the publicly performed meanings of 1989.

Politics of memory in post-socialist Bulgaria

How a society treats its past bears directly on how it builds up and perceives its present, and what expectations it has for its future. After 1989, a shift occurred in the memory culture of post-communist societies. This paper asks for the types of memory culture that have emerged during the transformation period and how they conform with the identity which these societies aspire to, having become part of a new community (the EU).